Several of us have been asking this for a long time now. Knox County/Knoxville was one of the first to embrace the then TVRRS, now the TACN back in its inception. Yet they are now one of the biggest holdouts. Maybe a money issue? They don't have much choice but to upgrade in the near future since they (like Asheville) have an system that is no longer going to be supported by Motorola. SO hopefully soon, we will see changes in Knox.

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There is one muti-type repeater for KnoxCoFireWest that is used for analog and P25 p1.

How come they cant keep their system because Motorola wont support it anymore? I assume there are plenty of parts and radios still available if something breaks down. I must have missed something somewhere. Im still using WinXP even though Microsoft no longer supports it and plan to keep on using it. That may be comparing apples to oranges though.

Windows XP no longer has support, and thus no longer has proper safety, fixes, updates or anything that kept it viably safe to use. With an radio system, if it no longer has support, that means no more new parts, updates, "good tech support" , replacement radios etc... As there are so many of these systems out there, the pool of spare parts is going to go away very very fast. You should already notice that formats that are not fully supported anymore, are not on the market anymore radio wise. Show me a brand new in the box ASTRO SABRE, or other of the "Jedi" radios? Also remember, its not just the Smart Net, and Smart Zones going away, Harris is ending support for the entire EDACS Lineup as well. Now if someone wants to keep using the Smart Net/Zone systems, they have a vendor they can go to, EFJ/Kenwood, who has now got the rights to the technology. Though they will be pushing their own P25 line as hard as Motorola and Harris do theirs....

But back on my original point - Why does an agency/municipality/county push hard for a radio system to be built, then not move to even use it partially?

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How come they cant keep their system because Motorola wont support it anymore? I assume there are plenty of parts and radios still available if something breaks down. I must have missed something somewhere. Im still using WinXP even though Microsoft no longer supports it and plan to keep on using it. That may be comparing apples to oranges though.

Two reasons... reliability and serviceability.

Most of the components in these systems aren't COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) items. There are many custom-made parts involved here that have long been discontinued and in the case of some custom silicon simply can't be replaced with something else. So, once you're out of spares, you're done. There are some partial upgrade paths, at least in the SmartNet/SmartZone world, to let you upgrade the hardware and later reflash the software to move to P25 trunking, keeping your existing transmission lines and antennas.

Also, at a certain point, you end up wasting more money and aggravating, if not endangering, your end users by fixing things that should have been replaced years ago. I could have crates of spare MTS2000 radios for parts, but if your radio only works for three weeks at a time and then you have to turn it in during the middle of your shift for service, is that the level of service you expect? (I'd hope not!)

It frustrates me the mentality that comes along with radios in public safety. Agencies don't hesitate to spend money on new computers, new cars, new guns, but radios they expect to get at LEAST 15 years out of. I don't get it.

Ultimately it all comes down to money, and money goes hand in hand with politics.

Oh, and even the new APX line from Motorola does support Type II trunking. No Type I but that stuff is archaic at this point. ASTRO 25 line didn't support Type I either.

A sub-contractor for KCSO's radios told me that Knox county was fed up with Motorola, and was trying every which way not to use them again. Dunno if there is any truth to that or not, or if it has anything to do with them not using the valley system yet.